Marri Knadle / McGill Tribune

Whether you’ve got environmentalism and animal ethics on the brain, or you’re contending with food allergies and a vegan relative or ten, there are lots of good reasons to make your baked goods vegan this season. Die-hard bakers of the chemist-gastronomist persuasion may be wary of the substitutes for proven ingredients like milk, eggs, and butter. But bakers have been hard at work testing the best alternatives to animal products in the kitchen for several decades now, with a veritable renaissance of vegan baking accomplishments occurring right under our noses. (The legendary impossible has even been achieved: vegan macarons. See Hannah Kaminsky’s Vegan Desserts: Sumptuous Sweets for Every Season).

Eggs

Eggs have from six to 20 ‘official’ jobs to do in baking, depending on what’s cooking. Don’t worry—whether you’re vegan, allergic, or health-conscious, you can certainly live without them. In most recipes, like those scrumptious coffee cakes, muffins, or snickerdoodles you’re planning, they serve simply as a binding agent. When making these recipes vegan, a simple off-the-shelf egg replacer will easily do the trick. (I’ve had good results with Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer, a powder sold in 16 oz bags where Bob’s Red Mill products are sold. Try Eden in La Cité, and Couffin Bio on the corner of Sherbrooke and du Parc. Also, look for Ener-G boxed egg replacer). Eggs can also emulsify, foam, and coagulate in recipes like mayonnaise, macarons, and quiches.  For these other recipes, kitchen wizards will recommend something else: when eggs are critical in the recipe, the right firmness of tofu (usually silken) will mimic the texture and substance of egg. Apple sauce or banana can provide moisture content, and some swear by water mixed with ground flax seeds as a healthy replacement with good verisimilitude to eggs in most recipes. 

Milk

Milk provides liquid as well as protein and fat content. There are a plethora of milks from the vegetable kingdom to choose from: rice, soy, and almond are the easiest to find commercially, but hemp and oat-based milks are out there too. The three faux-milk staples come in a variety of flavours, from plain to mango-strawberry. For most baking, a plain or unsweetened choice works the best, or vanilla for sweeter treats without much added sugar in the recipe itself. Rice milk has a slightly more watery mouth-feel than soy or almond milks, so keep this in mind when choosing your milk substitute. I find the nutty flavour of almond milk (which has the richest mouth-feel, in my opinion) blends well into any baking, but some prefer the more flavour-neutral plain soy milk. There are many competing brands with variable flavours and prices, so experiment and discern what works for your taste buds. (I’ve found Earth’s Own Almond Fresh to be the best to bake with as well as simply drink in between battles with my batter).  

Butter

There are many off-the-shelf vegan butters available, but be careful about simply grabbing any old margarine and adding it to your cart. Most of these, unless specifically labelled as vegan, contain milk ingredients and other animal-derived ingredients in addition to their vegetable-based fats. (To be safe, try Becel’s vegan margarine, or Earth Balance’s line of vegan spreads and margarines). If you’re overloaded on vegetable oils, rely on nut butters. While most of us are familiar with peanut butter, the high fat content of most nut species yields a buttery spread that’s good for baking with, especially if you’re looking for the richness of flavour that an almond, cashew, sesame, or hazelnut butter can provide to muffins, bars, and cookies. You can find a variety of nut butters in most stores, or, if you have ready access to some bulk nuts and a little patience, you can make your own with a recipe yanked from the Internet.

Sugar

Be aware that many sugars are not considered strictly vegan, because during the refinement process they’re filtered through animal bone char. Look for sugars labelled vegan, or the following: unrefined cane sugar, evaporated cane juice, beet sugar, turbinado, or raw sugar. You can also find online lists of companies which are confirmed to not use bone char in their sugar-whitening process, so take a gander before hitting the grocery store. Alternatives to sugar like agave nectar, stevia, maple syrup, rice syrup, fruit juice, and molasses are also excellent in most recipes calling for just a little sweetness to brighten things up. 

A little foreknowledge goes a long way in making vegan baking as easy and delicious as the mainstream. And because vegan baked goods often end up cheaper to make and healthier as well, who knows, you may find vegan baking becomes your new normal. 

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It’s getting to be that time of year again—when midterms are fading from memory and finals are just far enough away that panic mode hasn’t quite set in yet. The time of year when the snow begins to fall and the Canada Goose jackets come out. The time of year when Montreal lights up (literally) with holiday spirit, regardless of the American students insisting that Thanksgiving hasn’t even happened yet. It’s never too early to start celebrating the holidays, especially in a diverse place like Montreal. The city has a wide variety of attractions to fit any interest—from Christmas sing-alongs to fireworks in the Old Port—so that anyone looking for a little extra cheer before exams will not have to look far. 

Few things invoke feelings of coziness as much as bright, colourful lights against a pitch black sky, which is something Montreal has in spades throughout the holidays. If you need a little break from studying, take a stroll down McGill College and take in all the lit-up trees and wreaths along the sidewalk. The Christmas tree at Place-Ville Marie perfectly tops off the whole scene, and a holiday-flavoured coffee from Second Cup thrown in makes for an awesome start to the season. Another wonderful winter attraction Montreal has to offer is its skating rinks. Popular rinks such as Beaver Lake on Mont Royal or Bonsecours Basin in the Old Port offer outdoor fun for skaters of any level. Whether you’re going to show off your moves, or are just stepping onto the ice for the first time, the amplified music and good company guarantee a fun afternoon. 

It’s hard to get through December without shopping, but Montreal has some fantastic craft markets to peruse if the Eaton Centre isn’t your thing, though a photo with Santa is a great way to re-live your childhood. The Christmas Craft Fair presented by Pam Davy at St. Phillips church happens on Nov. 26, and promises homemade jewellery, pottery, soaps, and decorations. There is also the longer-running Salon des métiers d’art, which begins on Dec. 3 and goes until Dec. 22 at Place Bonaventure. It has been called the biggest professional craft show and sale in Canada. 

If Christmas carols are your favourite part of the holidays, the CBC hosts a sing-in from the church of St. Andrew and St. Paul every year that you definitely won’t want to miss. This year, it’s on Dec. 4, admission is free, and the performance is broadcast to the rest of Canada. There are also free Christmas choir concerts Saturdays and Sundays at 1:30 and 3 p.m. from Dec. 4 to Dec. 31. Les Choralies de la Chappelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours blends historic vignettes with classic Christmas favourites to create a show which will delight any music or holiday lover. Again, admission is free. 

Although the annual Santa Claus parade has already passed, there is the smaller Plaza St. Hubert’s Christmas parade, dubbed by some the “Other Christmas parade.”  Some prefer this to the more crowded Santa Claus parade downtown, because it starts at 7 p.m. instead of 11 a.m., and offers a chance to drive in an antique fire truck. And, if you like parades, you might also like the Telus Fire on Ice fireworks in the Old Port, which happen every Saturday in December at 8 p.m. The show is called a pyro-musical, and is choreographed to music, which makes the trek down to the Old Port completely worth it. Last but not least, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts presents a Christmas tree display with over 35 different trees for those with an eye for decoration, or anyone looking for ideas for their own tree. The display runs from Dec. 3 to Jan. 2, with free admission. 

Montreal boasts some of the best Yuletide attractions around, so grab a friend, grab a hot holiday drink (nothing says Christmas spirit like an eggnog latte), and make a trip out to see what the city has to offer. 

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There are certain things in my life that I have learned to live without. While spending a summer behind the great firewall of China in Beijing, I did not have access to Facebook for two months. During my summer in Bangladesh, I had to acclimate to 34°C weather and 80 per cent humidity without the help of air conditioning or a reliable fan. It took many nights of waking up covered in sweat and bugs before I adjusted to it. 

Yet, I have no greater yearning than my constant craving for Hispanic food, more specifically, Mexican food. Those of you have ventured south of the border know what I’m talking about. It’s not found in places with sombreros hanging on brightly coloured walls, but in inconspicuous stores and inexpensive food trucks on the side of the road. Oddly enough, the latter are still not allowed in Montreal.

I was born and raised in the suburbs outside of New York and grew up with a mother that practiced immigration law and an El Salvadorian housekeeper. Opening the fridge to piles of tamales and fresh pupusas was nothing out of the ordinary. Otherwise, I might never have known how good Carnitas taste wrapped in a 12″ tortilla with cheese and beans. Mole sauce was something I never thought too much about, but was something I always enjoyed.  

Unfortunately, as is the case far too often in life, I didn’t know what I had until it suddenly disappeared. I entered university as that typical cheery boy, enjoying Quebec’s beautifully low drinking age. However, after frosh ended and classes really started, I had this craving that could no longer be satisfied by poutine and crepes. I couldn’t figure out what was bothering me. Then one night, the Douglas cafeteria served turkey “burritos.” That’s when I realized it had been over a month since I had any Hispanic food.

The next few weeks, I spent many hours on Yelp, Urbanspoon, and every other website Google led me to, trying in vain to find some authentic spicy Mexican food. I quickly found out that Burritoville, Carlos & Pepes, and 3 Amigos were merely impostors. I found a few places: a bodega style eatery on St. Laurent that makes pretty nice tacos al pastor and another place on Jean-Talon that serves delicious nachos, but they just weren’t the same. They were all missing the real kick of flavour and spice that I had been so accustomed to. It seemed as if Montreal had banned real spicy food just for laughs. 

After three years in Montreal, I’m still keeping my hopes up. Someone tells me of this new place on Beaubien, or a blog points me to some small store in Mile End and I go. I always go. I still have faith that one day I’ll find the place that makes my mouth sing like a mariachi band.

all the fun, none of the drama.

I hate people who celebrate Christmas too early. I would usually hesitate to use such a strong word in such a mild context, but no other adjective is strong enough to express my loathing. Christmas is the crown jewel in the holiday calendar and it shouldn’t be reduced and diluted by tinny speakers playing “Little Drummer Boy” on a loop or tinsel artfully scattered in storefront windows … in November.

But there’s one exception, one event so magical that I’m able to exclude it from the other utterly premature reminders of Christmas that fill me with such bile—Christmas in November.

Christmas in November (CiN), as the name so clearly implies, is celebrated each November. The inaugural CiN was held on Nov. 25 at Solin years ago. Fuelled by a visiting cousin with a credit card and a zest for both drinks and Christmas lights, the event went from humble beginnings to its humble current condition—dinner and a party, with plenty of Christmas decorations, no regard for the significance of the occasion, and the best in holiday food and drink. It’s a non-denominational, non-exclusively Christian Christmas, without the stress of buying presents for family, or the stress of family in general. For the many, many McGill students here who aren’t from Montreal, it’s an opportunity to share your Christmas cheer with your school friends.

But first and foremost, it’s an opportunity to deck your apartment’s halls in holly, garnish your potted plants with Christmas tree lights, dress up in your finest Christmas sweater-wear, and stuff yourself with food and drink.

CiN is a fairly fluid concept, so for me this year it fell on Saturday the 19th. To give you an idea of the possibilities, we do things potluck style with the host cooking a turkey (or vegetarian alternative). This year’s meal consisted of turkey, gravy, purple cabbage, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, with some homemade cider and a vat of 70-proof eggnog. Again, these aren’t rules to follow, but more an idea of the delicious things you can add to your own Christmases in November.

My food and drink listings alone should be reason enough to add this event to your calendar but if not, remember: it’s the Christmas lights, the Christmas food, the Christmas booziness, without the Christmas family drama,  the Christmas shopper-packed malls, or the bitterly cold Montreal weather.

So this year or next, pick a weekend in November, gather up the people who make up your family away from home, and celebrate Christmas an extra time.

They’re called hashtags, and they’re a phenomenon that started on Twitter and are now appearing all over the Internet (and even outside, with the appearance of ‘air hashtag’ hand-signs). Before explaining what hashtags are, let’s examine the social media that started it all.

Twitter was launched in July 2006, and now, five years later, there are over two million new tweets per day, generated by 300 million users (and counting) – that’s roughly the population of the United States. According to a survey by comScore, a US-based internet marketing firm, 13.5 per cent of the Canadian population uses Twitter, almost 2 percent more than in the US.

What is it about Twitter that makes it so special? For some people, it’s the brevity of messages. For others, it’s how easy it is to follow celebrities, companies, or influential people that are otherwise aloof. Suddenly, an “@” sign is all it takes to communicate with Bill Gates, Justin Bieber, or to provide personal insight to a newspaper. In fact, according to a Pew Internet study released Nov. 15, 11 per cent of Twitter users say reading comments by politicians, celebrities, or athletes is a major reason they use social networks. In comparison, only four per cent of people who use social media outside of Twitter are interested in following celebrities.

Now that we know what Twitter is all about, we’re ready to look at the hashtag phenomenon and its implications.

Officially, hashtags are placed in front of a word (#example) and are used to create a link that enables users to search for all the posts that have used that hashtag. If you wanted to know what people are saying about #nov10 or #tarsands, all it takes is a simple search of the

hashtag to get access to any tweet about that topic. If a hashtag is used by enough people, the topic starts “trending” and appears on Twitter’s front page, giving the topic even more visibility.

Hashtags have evolved in two different directions. The first is in shaping social movements and shaping online communication. Hashtags can serve to advance, publicize, and share information in real time, which has proved useful in organizing mass movements, including the uprisings of the Arab Spring and the #occupy movement. Even #nov10 trended in Montreal, linking to an array of information— from brief accounts by those caught in the confusion outside of the James Admin building, to those providing commentary on the protest against tuition hikes. Later, with the appearance of media coverage, links toothersourcestagged#nov10 made it easy for anyone to access articles, photos, and footage of the events of the day.

Linking information with hashtags is easy, leading many news organizations to use them to publicize their content. According to a Nov. 14 study by the Pew Research Center on how media outlets use Twitter, 93 per cent of tweets link to the organization’s own site. But it can also entirely change the way we perceive news: individual journalists often re-tweet other media sources and average citizens’ tweets linked under a hashtag to promote discussion and give a snapshot of what is happening, as seen by eyewitnesses. One such journalist is Andy Carvin (@acarvin), from NPR, who last weekend retweeted hundreds of tweets on the violence in #tahrir square, illustrating the violence as seen by those involved and linking to people’s pictures and videos taken by phones, all in real time. Closer to home, journalists

and activists are using hashtags like #occupy and #OWS to link, organize and provide commentary on the Occupy Wall Street movement and many other occupy movements in North America.

But hashtags are also used “to telegraph a joke,” as described by professor of communications Jonathan Sterne. They often add humour or context to a post by taking advantage of irony to express one’s internal monologue. With hashtags, users can express thoughts in the same way people often mutter things under their breath—the word with the hashtag is either what you tell yourself, or a word that helps you categorize your problems and experiences. A popular tag for many Mcgill tweeters is #mcgillproblems. Hashtags allow users to categorize their musings and problems into categories, sometimes serious but mostoftenfunny.SamDonald,U1 environment studies and Twitter user, explained his relationship with hashtags.

“I find hashtags have become more of a universal way to make a commentary on something,” he said. “Sometimes I consider hashtags as the proverbial voice in my head talking back at me, almost like a conscience (‘Just realized I’m at the grocery store in socks and sandals, #areyoukiddingme?’)”

“Because [hashtags are] embedded in a short message with real language, [they] start exhibiting other characteristics of natural language … people start playing with it and manipulating it,” Jacob Eisenstein, a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University in computational linguistics told the New York Times. “[They’re like] a sort of meta-commentary, where you’ll write a message and maybe you don’t really believe it, and what you really think is in the hashtag.”